Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Former cryptocurrency kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of fraud. A New York jury delivered the verdict on November 2nd, concluding a trial that has seen Bankman-Fried defend himself against claims that he criminally mismanaged his crypto exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research.After more than a month in trial, the jury took less than four hours to decide Bankman-Fried’s fate, declaring him guilty on all seven charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will be sentenced by Judge Lewis Kaplan in a future hearing and faces decades in prison.Bankman-Fried started FTX in 2019, and its valuation rose stratospherically during a post-pandemic crypto boom.... Continue reading…

Image: Hulu More Futurama is headed to Hulu. The streamer has ordered two additional seasons of the quirky sci-fi series, each consisting of 10 episodes.That’s on top of the 20 Futurama episodes Hulu ordered last year, half of which debuted as part of the reboot’s 11th season in July. The streamer says it will drop the remaining 10 episodes with a season 12 that’s expected to arrive in 2024.Here we go again. #Futurama has been renewed for two more seasons. pic.twitter.com/Mhtuv5nJB9— Futurama on Hulu (@futurama_hulu) November 2, 2023Hulu doesn’t say when seasons 13 and 14 will premiere on the platform, but at least now we know that we can expect a total of 30 new Futurama episodes to hit Hulu in the near future. Hulu first picked up F... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple reported a record September earnings quarter on Thursday, with iPhone revenue up year over year — even with just a week or so of iPhone 15 sales factored into the numbers. But all of the company’s other hardware divisions were down, and as CNBC noted, overall sales were down for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company brought in $89.5 billion in revenue overall for the quarter.CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that the iPhone 15 lineup is showing stronger early momentum than the 14 series. “If you look at iPhone 15 for that period of time and compare it to iPhone 14 for the same time in the year-ago quarter, iPhone 15 did better than iPhone 14,” he said, adding that the Pro and Pro Max devices were both currently supply-constrained.The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is removing the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for most of its 238,000 employees and some aren’t happy about it. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company started informing employees this week that in January 2024 the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for permanent Microsoft employees will no longer be available.I understand that Xbox employees will continue to keep the benefit, but the vast majority of Microsoft employees who aren’t part of Xbox / Microsoft Gaming will see the benefit disappear next year. Microsoft employees will be able to purchase a discounted 12-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription at the company’s internal store.Some Microsoft employees have taken to the... Continue reading…

Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch Another big esports brand is making some major changes. 100 Thieves, which already announced layoffs in January, is laying off more staff and spinning out its internal game development studio and its Juvee energy drink, 100 Thieves president and COO John Robinson said in a Thursday thread on X (formerly Twitter). The cuts impact roughly 20 percent of the company’s employees and primarily affect Juvee and the game development studio, Robinson tells The Verge. (Robinson wouldn’t confirm a specific number of employees affected.)100 Thieves was founded in 2017 by Call of Duty star Matt “Nadeshot” Haag and quickly became known for blending gaming and apparel to become something like the Supreme of esports. (Drake and Scooter Braun are... Continue reading…

Photo by Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Vox Media During today’s presentation about HBO’s slate of upcoming projects, CEO / chair Casey Bloys could have tried denying recent reports that he and fellow executive Kathleen McCaffrey concocted a scheme to target and harass critics who wrote negative things about some of the network’s recently released series in the early days of the pandemic. Instead, though, Bloys owned up to the allegations of his trying to build a “secret army” of Twitter trolls, apologized, and insisted that he isn’t the kind of person who would do that sort of thing now.On Wednesday, Rolling Stone published a rather wild report detailing how, for almost a year between June 2020 and April 2021, “Bloys and McCaffrey discussed using what they called a ‘secret army’ to... Continue reading…

The Pixel Tablet is among the tablets you can buy in 2023, and it's readily available to purchase now from various retailers in the U.S. There's a lot to like about the Pixel Tablet, including its 10.95-inch 2560x1600 LCD panel, the aluminum enclosure with nano-ceramic coating, and more. But what I like the most about this particular tablet is that it comes bundled with the charging speaker dock in the box.

Image: EA Yesterday was the worst day of the month for many people — rent day. And if you really love to torture yourself, I have great news for you.In the upcoming Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack, players can have their Sims relive all the joys and annoyances of renting life. Players can build multiunit housing in a tropical, vaguely Southeast Asian-inspired town called Tomarang, and units can be anything from basement apartments to duplexes. Aspiring landlords, take note: the game expansion allows you to try your hand at managing rentals by becoming a property owner. Landlord Sims can make money from their savvy investments and can live on-site or have their home on a separate lot away from tenants.Also, housing insecurity is a thing in The... Continue reading…

Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers out there, especially if you're using a Chromebook. The stable version of Chrome is excellent on its own, but for power users, there are numerous tweaks you can add to suit specific needs.

Most modern browsers, including Google Chrome, support extensions, which add additional features to the browser or provide quick access to services. Installing too many extensions, however, can add bloat to the browser and make it run slowly. Chrome is already known for taking up a significant amount of system resources, so you wouldn’t want the extensions to further strain the system. In this guide, we’ll tell you how you can easily remove Chrome extensions you don’t need.

Illustration: The Verge When HBO Max transformed into Max back in May, Warner Bros. Discovery said that existing subscribers on the ad-free plan would be able to hang onto certain perks (like 4K streaming) for at least the next six months without needing to spend more money. Well, we’re about to hit that six-month mark, and right on cue, the party’s over. That’s all, folks. Max is emailing affected customers, letting them know that while their monthly price of $15.99 will remain the same moving forward, they’ll be losing a couple of perks on or after December 5th. Specifically, 4K (and HDR) streaming will be removed for legacy customers; they’ll now be limited to HD quality, just like anyone signing up for Max’s ad-free tier today would be. If they want to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is closing its two Amazon Style clothing stores by next week, according to Bloomberg, marking the company’s latest big change to its retail strategy. The company announced in March 2022 that it would be shutting down most of its physical stores, including all 68 of its Books, 4-Star, and Pop Up locations. And this past March, it said it would be closing eight of its Go convenience stores.The Style clothing stores didn’t even make it two years. Amazon opened its first Style location in Los Angeles, California, in May 2022, promising that the store would offer customers “a personalized and convenient shopping experience while creating local jobs.” A second location in Columbus, Ohio, opened in October 2022. “After careful... Continue reading…